Karen Baxter
Founding and Managing Partner
Karen is the creative mind behind many of Park’s most successful initiatives. Having devoted her entire career to occupational hygiene and health and safety, Karen’s ideas are rooted in real-world practicality. Some of Karen’s career highlights include the creation of CMS, now one of the UK’s most widely used COSHH Management tools and development of the 4Ws – Worker, Workplace, Wellbeing and Wider Community solution, an approach to health and wellbeing that is now the accepted strategy in the construction sector. Passionate about preventing ill-health caused or exacerbated by work, She has also worked with a wide range of manufacturers, from sectors covering engineering to food production. A Chartered Member of IOSH (CMIOSH) and a Member of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, Karen frequently speaks and writes on the topic of occupational health and safety and has authored several publications. The initiatives Karen has created and led are instrumental in helping our clients address their health, safety and wellbeing issues through informed leadership.
Melodie Gilbert
Senior Partner
Melodie is one of the UK’s leading experts in the development of occupational health management systems. She frequently speaks on the topic and serves on a number of HSE committees. Having worked as a practicing occupational hygienist for over 20 years, she has plenty of first hand experience to draw upon. Mel was one of the leaders of the Olympic Park and Athlete’s Village health teams, providing support to the contracting supply chain and services for up to 12,000 workers involved on site at any one time. Building on that legacy, Melodie has since developed occupational health management strategies for Crossrail and Tideway and is currently working closely with HS2. A self confessed occupational hygiene anorak, Mel continues to play an active role in the development of solutions that improve the working lives of Her VIPs – the workers at risk of harm. Recent solutions include the HRA tool for ensuring ill health prevention remains at the forefront of minds for the entire life of a project from inception to demolition and the Mental Health Circle, an integrated approach to the maintenance of psychological health in an increasingly demanding world.
Eric Ball
Senior Partner
Eric is an Occupational Hygienist with a primary focus on health prevention within complex infrastructure projects and global manufacturing organisations. As an ergonomics specialist, He is closely involved in Park’s management strategies and programmes from a musculoskeletal and fatigue perspective. One of his key areas of expertise is the design, implementation, and management of systems to mitigate of these occupational health risks. Eric is an innovative thinker who enjoys creating tools to simplify the process of ensuring worker health. Amongst other things, this has resulted in tools for ergonomic risk assessment, an occupational health audit tool for benchmarking improvements in occupational health performance and the Health Impact Frequency Rating (HIFR) for the measurement of performance using leading indicators. As is commonly the case with Park’s leaders, in addition to customer related work, Eric also provides expertise to numerous advisory committees, in particular, those relating to the tunnelling sector.
James Barnes
Senior Partner
James specialises in Occupational Hygiene, developing and implementing occupational health and safety management strategies and programmes across many industry sectors. Currently working on major tunnelling projects for customers including Tideway, Crossrail and HS2, James provides advice on measuring exposure and designing and implementing control systems. Integrated within project teams James oversees day to day activities and deliver occupational health risk management training. James also works closely with design teams to eliminate health hazards thus reducing the burden on contractors to mitigate risk. His work is an effective investment saving, rather than an adding to project’s budget. James also shares his knowledge and experience through industry groups and is particularly active within the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS)
.
Linda Williams
Senior Partner
Linda has over 20 years’ administrative experience under Her belt including several years’ heading up a training academy. This background has provided Linda with an in depth knowledge of Park’s support needs. Based on a servant leadership model, using a self-managed team approach, Linda leads on the delivery of professional services to Park’s front line clinical and consulting staff. This invaluable support allows Park’s clinicians and consultants to provide a seamless cost effective service, comfortable in the knowledge that a safe pair of administrative hands is always there when needed. Linda’s methodical systems bias ensures that Park’s integrated business management system retains its certifications and accreditations including ISO 9001, 14001, 18001 27001, 45001 certification, SEQOHS Accreditation and Cyber Essentials Plus.
Dr Jenny Napier
Medical Director
Dr Napier launched Napier Occupational Health in January 2024 to develop direct relationships with client organisations in order to work more proactively and effectively on supporting health at work. Regular aspects of her role as an Occupational Physician include complex case management, rail medicine, health surveillance and acting as chief medical officer for 2 companies. Dr Napier is a lead and ionising radiations appointed doctor, and a HAVS tier 4 examining doctor. She also founded the Society for Occupational Medicine Future Leaders special interest group, establishing a programme of mentoring and webinars. Dr Napier brings with her 14 years’ experience as a General Practitioner, including as a GP appraiser, and organisational consultant to GP practices under regulatory review as part of a Royal College of General Practitioners team.
